1. Field of the Invention
The invention hereinafter to be described is a hand-held, rechargeable sprayer which through a unique arrangement of valves and charging means in combination with a fluid discharge nozzle produces a mist or fine spray comparable to that found in aerosol type sprayers now in widespread use throughout the western world. However, aerosol sprayers have many disadvantages, chief among which is the necessity to precharge them, usually under very high (relatively) pressures with a propellant such as freon or the like. In addition, usually the entire contents are subject to this high pressure, and hence the container must be of high pressure design. Further, these prior art devices often retain high residual pressure even when in the so-called "empty" condition, thus when discarded are potentially dangerous.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices now currently enjoying favor in the art of atomizing dispensers include the manually operated rechargeable sprayer described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,065 to C. E. Malone. In this device an inner chamber is charged in response to a downwardly directed force applied to the device. This results in one portion telescoping into another portion, which action effects a pumping action by compressing a spring and simultaneously drawing liquid into a chamber below a piston. Since the piston is urged against the liquid, and a valve below the liquid in the chamber entrance closes, the liquid is trapped therein until released by an appropriate discharge device.
However, while the above sprayer is advantageous over aerosol bombs and other pre-pressurized devices, it does have certain practical limits insofar as pressure chamber volume is concerned, because by use of the telescoping mechanism its length must be increased, either to charge or discharge, hence the capacity of the charge chamber is, of necessity, limited, and severely so.
Other prior art sprayers include the hand-held type which operate by a steady application of hand action i.e., triggering, squeezing etc., to pump liquid. While these devices enjoy relatively wide-spread usage, because, primarily, they are low in cost, they do have the disadvantage of poor spray rate control, poor atomization, and from a user standpoint, require much physical effort to operate.
Accordingly, these disadvantages, inherent in the above and in other prior art devices of similar form and construction, are believed overcome by the herein to be presented invention as will be more apparent from the description which follows.